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Satirical website remains offline after death threats

The website of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which published a controversial Arab Spring issue this week with the prophet Mohammed as guest "editor", was offline Thursday due to death threats against its Belgian hosting company.

AFP - The website of the French satirical weekly that was firebombed after publishing images of the Prophet Mohammed was offline Thursday because of death threats against the Belgian company hosting it.

Host Bluevision took Charlie Hebdo's site offline after it was the victim of a cyberattack following Wednesday's issue featuring Mohammed as "guest editor" and has remained offline after the company received death threats.

Bluevision "doesn't want to put it back online (because) they received death threats," charliehebdo.fr's editor Valerie Manteau told AFP.

"Either the police reassure them and we manage to convinced them to put it back online, or we change host."

Charlie Hebdo's Paris offices were firebombed early Wednesday after it published a special Arab Spring edition with Mohammed on the cover as "guest editor" saying: "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter!"

The newspaper's website was also hacked, with its regular home page replaced with a photo of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and a message reading: "No god but Allah".

French news site nouvelobs.com said the cyberattack was carried out by Turkish hacker group Akincilar, which said it took the action to "fight against a publication that attacks beliefs and moral values."

Manteau said that Charlie Hedbo's Facebook page would soon be closed to outside comments after thousands vented their anger over the weekly's "Sharia Hebdo" edition, including by making death threats.

"Police are collecting the data of those who have posted death threats," said Manteau. "As soon as they've finished, we will close the comments page."